A few weeks ago A and I went on a special tour of Chicago given by Geoffrey Baer. If you are from this area – you know him from the WTTW tours of the city/suburbs. The weather was iffy – and we ended up driving home through tornadic conditions, but we had a great time. Check out the photos for a special tour of the city.
Archive for the ‘Chicago’ Category
All posts in Chicago category.
Jappler Recommends: Mr. Duct
After living in our home for over 5 years and having done some construction/having dogs and cats we decided to get our air ducts cleaned. I did some initial research last week and after talking to the people at Mr. Duct I decided to go with them. They were not the cheapest – but they had they were certified and took time to explain everything.
The process itself took a few hours and was well worth it. Before the cleaning started – they put a camera into our ducts and showed us what they looked like (which was disgusting). After the cleaning – they showed us the same view and low and behold – it was clean.
If you live in the Chicagoland area and are looking to get your ducts cleaned – please give these guys a call. They do great work and are very easy to work with.
Valentine’s Day = Lou Malnati’s

Heart shaped pizza!
My Volvo Has No Fear
I am a Volvo fan tried and true. This morning I needed to go out. My Volvo was pretty buried from the Chicago blizzard (the snow was even packed tight in my wheel bases!). Without fail – I turned it on and backed right up, no problems. Thank you Scandinavia!
- I cleared some room out with my hand
- Fun times!
- The entire front of my car was in/ under a drift
Bracing For the Non-Blizzard (Chicago)
Growing up just south of Buffalo taught me quite a few things:
- How to always be able to start a snow blower
- The difference between “Upstate New York” vs. “Western New York”
- How to not root for the home team
- How to actually deal with snow
Out here in Chicago I have seen a trend which I call the “ok – it is our turn for the big news story”. Chicago always prepares and hypes up all storms and then after all the schools close down in fear – we end up getting snow that is easily moved by using a broom instead of a snowblower or even shovel. I feel like Chicago has felt left out with all the news and attention on New York’s storms this year so the media can barely hold back their excitement for this attention.
I am sure all the Chicago stations have been gearing up for this “Blizzard which will soon hit the area with all their fancy graphics and catchy phrases but most likely – we will get some accumulation but nothing near what they expected.
What I hope for: a lot of snow. I miss hard core snow blowing where I have to literally push the snow blower with my arms and one leg (oh yes – a hidden talent for extreme snow blowing). I can then go out and build a sweet snowman that will last weeks. What I think we will get – no more than 6-9 inches at most and a lot of hype/wasted time for all the catchy news phrases/imagery.
Meeting People
On the same note as my post las week “Time to Reconnect and Disconnect – I decided to take some time this past weekend to go golfing as well as to go to my first ever book signing: Alison Arngrim (actress who played Nellie Oleson on Little House on the Prairie) (one of my all time favorite shows).
It was great to get out and enjoy the nice fall weather while golfing on my favorite course: Foxford Hills. While only my second time out all year (pathetic) – I did pretty well and came home excited to go out again this week. I need to work on my putting but everything else felt pretty good.
During show commercials – I often pick up the iPad and see what actors have done/are doing and decided to take a look at the Little House on the Prairie cast. I noticed the actress who played Nellie Oleson (someone that is in the thick of things in all my favorite episodes) was in town doing a book signing for her new book. I decided I had to go meet her in person and so on Saturday – I drove down to the bookstore where she was at and listened to her talk, had her sign my book, and told her how much of a pleasure it was to meet her.
Listening her tell stories and just seeing her in person was a real treat. I look forward to going to more book signings in the future. It was great to be able to ask questions and make a real connection face to face with someone you thought you “knew” all those years. Of course playing golf was also a blast and I am looking forward to a lot of fall golf in the next few months.
Random Fridays: Chicago 2016 No More
Well – after three years of waiting/planning for this day and 70 million dollars spent…Chicago got out in the first round of voting for the 2016 Olympic location. I am completely stunned we got knocked out and during the first round at that. I had it all planned too…all my construction friends would have plenty of work, my family and friends would fly in for the big event, my son Evan would be 10 and actually be able to appreciate them, and so on.
Chicago is a fantastic town with all kinds of gems that people who have never been here don’t have any clue about and it is a bit sad to me that the world will not see our city for what it really is (our lakefront, great neighborhoods, amazing food, nice people, clean streets, world class architecture, etc).
Perhaps it was not meant to be, but man…I was really looking forward to it!
Random Fridays: Olympics in Chicago?
I have been anxiously awaiting the news of whether or not Chicago will get the 2016 games and it looks like some others are getting antsy as well. The Chicago Tribune put out an article “Chicago awards contract to clear Olympics site” today that makes me even more hopeful. Of course there are plenty of rumors going around, but this makes it sound a bit more promising!
So many people have little or no expectations for our great city and I would love for the world to see what all we have to offer. We have an amazing (perhaps great) lake, an unforgettable skyline, some of the nicest people, and some pretty interesting history.
Sure the traffic will be out of control and it will be a bit overwhelming, but the excitement, jobs, and the opportunity to see some events in your own city would be amazing.
Let’s just hope we get some good news in October!
Thursday Linkfest: June 18, 2009
This week flew by – but I actually found a number of links very interesting over the last seven days.
- Chicagoland fishing information and reports
- How to ditch cable but still have quality TV programming options (thanks @htoddcarter)
- TV.com – TiVO again and again proves it is the coolest thing around. You can find shows available on TV.com and send them to your TiVo.
- ESPN 360 – Oh my – I am so close to canceling my $100+ a month cable. This becomes available for Comcast high speed internet subscribers on August 1. If it proves to work well for two weeks worth of programming – look out!
























































































































































